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Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?


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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

PA also seems a great place to talk about building new organizations, leading communities, creating bases as a campaign not a combat effect, and the long-term influence of the actions of heroes on the conditions of their world.

 

In a PA setting, where teachers of skills are in limited supply, suddenly a 2-3 pt skill in all sorts of things -- Farming, Medicine, Hunting, Gathering, Building, Radio Operator, Mechanic, Electronics, Languages -- becomes far more valuable than a lot of 50 pt powers.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

This book is one I have been waiting for!! Please try to include the following. How to start a normal modern style game and turn it into an Apocalyptic one. Doing the same with super heroes is easy they and all NPC heroes simply fail to stop DR. Destroyers latest plot for world conquest.

Secondly please include information on how various groups would react to a serious disaster that results in the Apolcalpse. Groups like governments, biker gangs, religious communities, survivalists, Militia groups, and how about an anti tech back to nature type organization. To achieve developed animals like in Planet of the Apes. How about a nasty nano virus that converts all exposed humans into such creatures. Please include stats for Zombies, living humans gone cannibal and various other friends and foes. A few suggestions for types of characters in a modern setting that falls. I know lots of people want settings in the far future that is fine. But please do a little bit on the fall it self possible causes and so on. I don't know about other people I tend to use what I like and toss the rest anyway. This is the advantage of including information like what might Viper do if the world fell into disaster. Even if people did not call the group Viper this information may very well spawn numerous ideas. Some story suggestions and guidelines would also be very,very helpful. Thanks Ferret........

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I am getting into this discussion very late, so if this concept for one of the options for the PA sourcebook has already been mentioned, forgive me.

 

Hands down the best PA game I ever played in was a Hero System version of Morrow Project with a twist. The apocalypse wasn't caused by a nuclear war, it was caused by the War of the Worlds. The Martians invaded earth and in response the US & allies managed to cobble together their space programs to accomplish the saturation nuclear bombing of Mars (the alien home world). This crippled their invasion (and sterilized the already dying planet Mars) but the war on Earth was rapidly bringing about the apocalypse. Our first game was the team being escorted to our bolt hole while the tanks of the US army dueled with Martian walkers. We woke up after the war had ended. The world that greeted us was similar to a PA nuke war world except bits and pieces of Martian inspired bio-tech was still lose in the world. It made for a very different and refreshing game.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

This might be an odd request but I'd actually prefer to see weapons limited to genre specific items, chainsaws, wrist crossbows, homemade flamethowers, truck spring giant arrow launchers, spearguns, baseball bat with nails etc. Dark Champions already has a good sized list of weapons and I'd prefer to see the space used for the genre instead of duplicating DC weapon list.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Just sort thinking out loud here. More regarding CRPGs like Final Fantasy VII and Grandia II. Final Fantasy VII strikes me as more of a steam-punk world. Tech is still around and still works (guns, trains...) but it's more in the background story-wise.

 

Whereas Grandia II was a complete fantasy world, with only small amounts of tech. Tech was what happened before the breaking of the world and the apocalyptic event, and was also long long ago. So long most people have forgotten what tech was really.

 

It seems to me you could build a sliding scale based around these to concepts, magic and tech. Shadowrun would have equal amounts of powerful tech and magic, and both are highilghted, story-wise, and therefore both are important.

 

Then you have something like MetaCyber, where the emphasis is basically on tech, and magic, if it even is magic, is this weird other force that is rather rare and doesn't really affect most of the world. Finally on the scale there should be tech only, a-la William Gibson, and magic is completely de-emphasized.

 

I guess the last ones really aren't post apocalyptic, more of a post-human/trans-human thing. I'm sure there would be analogs in a strict PA setting. Twilight 2000 being the no-magic version, Dark Conspiracy being the low-magic/mostly tech version. I can't think of an even tech+magic setting right now. Maybe a well done magic+tech setting could attract some additional folks to the PA book...

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Maybe a little bit of how "old world" technology can pick up supernatural meaning, a la the cargo cults of the Pacific. The sort of thing where "The Pilot" ascends the mountain to the airliner wreck to "try the radio" each full moon.

 

Or how pop culture gains supernatural significance, like prophecies of the saint Rogaine restoring the land's fertility, or (heh heh) an extreme case where adherents of a particular religion consider it a test of faith to be bitten by the giant radioactive spiders in the ruined city, with the promise of ascension to godhood for the truly worthy.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Not to derail the thread but, this is the first time I have heard someone say that the Mayan calendar has been misinterpreted in that manner. For my own personal curiosity, could you point out a few books and/or other references where this is discussed?

 

It's nicely summarized here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Long_Count_Calendar

 

 

Basically it has to do with misunderstandings based on how the Mayans abbreviated their calendar dates. More accurately the world will end in October, 4772 AD. ;)

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Re: the Mayan discussion:

 

Not that I disagree with anyone's disagreement about the conclusion, but for crying out loud, what better point of departure could anyone come up with for a good Post-Apoc story? It has everything short of the truly fantastic, especially when you throw all of those other 2012 elements in there!

 

Re: Other things...

 

Speaking of the truly fantastic, Post-Apoc Hero is probably the best place to discuss the truly bizarre elements of any world. Definitely there should be discussions on the realistic aspects of things, like society building, the effects of radiation, expectations on global catastrophes, and so forth, but post-apocalypse is also the genre where we tend to see the most "out-there" elements. I mean, suppose a GM wants to pit the PCs against sentient squirrels that are three feet tall, ride giant pigs into battle, and throw spiked steel balls using weapons similar to the xistera used by modern jai-alai players. Such a thing would probably pass just fine in fantasy or sci-fi, but it'd be right at home in post-apocalypse.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Oh' date=' will there be a "Rise of the Machines" scenario (a la the Terminator, the Matrix, etc.)?[/quote']It seems reasonable to me. Even if Steve doesn't agree, the idea proabably should at least be mentioned with a proverbial arrow pointing at where one should look.
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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Oh, will there be a "Rise of the Machines" scenario

 

No, we don't have a setting like that planned right now. There's only so much room, and I think that one's relatively easy for the GM to come up with on his own. ;)

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I don't know how true this is today, but when I was in school some decade or so ago and taking Economics we had a series of formulas used for various things... some of them required a year to be input and without fail if the year 2020 or beyond was used the formula failed.

 

Don't know if economic studies have altered that or not, but I found it interesting enough - especially since I was deep into a CP2020 game at the time.

 

What this has to do with P-A I'm not entirely sure, but an economic crash could be built around the idea, one that drags the world into a depression that causes the Final Collapse. Maybe a sidebar mention of the idea is worth a merit.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

No' date=' we don't have a setting like that planned right now. There's only so much room, and I think that one's relatively easy for the GM to come up with on his own. ;)[/quote']

Wait, so you will be describing some specific post-apoc settings in this book? It won't just contain generalities? awesome.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Wait' date=' so you will be describing some specific post-apoc settings in this book? It won't just contain generalities? awesome.[/quote']

 

Yuppers. Obviously they can't be fully fleshed out, since there will be several of them plus the core stuff that will all need to fit into the book, but that is my understanding of the plan. And since I'm helping playtest Darren's bits, I'm pretty sure it is pretty accurate. ;)

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Not that it means much, but what I'd want to see is an actual supported line of PA books.

 

*sigh*

 

I was never too hyped about the metagenre myself, though I'd love to see one of Darren's bits turned into a full setting book myself... :D

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Not that it means much' date=' but what I'd want to see is an actual supported line of PA books.[/quote']

 

Now you're just being outrageous in your demands. :P

 

Actually, I'd like to see a line of books too.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

an economic crash could be built around the idea, one that drags the world into a depression that causes the Final Collapse.

 

An economic crash (not necessarily in 2020) is the cause of the apocalypse in the Gordon R. Dickson novel Wolf And Iron. It's largely handwaved and, I think, does not really hold up to hard scrutiny at all -- but that's not much of a problem in a genre where radioactive mutants are a prominent feature. ;)

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Wait, so you will be describing some specific post-apoc settings in this book? It won't just contain generalities? awesome.

 

Well, yeah -- look at what I described for Chapter Four of the book in the very first post in this thread. ;)

 

Here's a quick description of what we've got planned in terms of mini-settings:

 

Amrica: a Low PA setting largely inspired by the superb Pelbar Cycle novels, with a touch of "Road Warrior" in what used to be California.

 

After The Blast: a High PA setting, full of rad zones, mutants with strange powers, etc., etc.

 

The Moonshattered Earth: a High PA setting in which magic has returned, a la Empire of the East, Thundarr the Barbarian, etc.

 

A "zombie apocalypse" setting (Darren)

 

A "Revelations came true in 1000 AD" setting (Darren)

 

A "nearly all life has been scoured from the face of the Earth, find a place where agriculture is still possible before you starve to death" setting (Jason)

 

 

Naturally, some of these come with related support material, like sample characters. In particular, After The Blast has a big section of example mutations, mutant animals, and so on.

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

An economic crash (not necessarily in 2020) is the cause of the apocalypse in the Gordon R. Dickson novel Wolf And Iron. It's largely handwaved and' date=' I think, does not really hold up to hard scrutiny at all -- but that's not much of a problem in a genre where radioactive mutants are a prominent feature. ;)[/quote']

 

I demand a hard scientific basis for the maneating butterfly foxes in any post-apoc game I play.

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